Wolfe Tone

Lore & Background

Tone was born on 20 June 1763 to Peter Tone, a prosperous coach-maker and member of the established Anglican church, and Margaret Lamport, a Catholic who converted to her husband's church when Tone was eight. He was baptised a Protestant, named Theobald Wolfe after his godfather. He studied law at Trinity College Dublin, where he was a scholar and graduated BA in 1786, later qualifying as a barrister in 1788. As a student, he eloped with Martha (Matilda) Witherington, daughter of a prominent Dublin merchant.

In 1790, Tone met Thomas Russell in the Irish House of Commons, and in October 1791 he addressed a reform club in Belfast, where members were Protestant Dissenters. Calling themselves the Society of United Irishmen, they approved Tone's draft resolutions declaring that 'we have no national government — we are ruled by Englishmen, and the servants of Englishmen.' Tone had written 'An Argument on behalf of the Catholics of Ireland,' which argued that the key to constitutional reform was Catholic emancipation. In 1792, the Catholic Committee appointed Tone as assistant secretary, and in December 1792 he helped stage a national Catholic Convention in Dublin.

When the 1798 rebellion broke into open rebellion, Tone was in exile soliciting assistance from the French Republic. In October 1798, on his second attempt to land in Ireland with French troops and supplies, he was taken prisoner. Sentenced to be hanged, he died from a reportedly self-inflicted wound.

Reader's Guide

Since the mid-19th century, Tone's name has been invoked, and his legacy disputed, by different factions of Irish republicanism. These have held annual, but separate, commemorations at his graveside in Bodenstown, County Kildare. His central conviction was that Protestant fears of making common cause with the Catholic majority allowed the British Crown to continue governing Ireland in the English interest. His 'Argument on behalf of the Catholics of Ireland' was widely circulated, second only to Thomas Paine's 'Rights of Man' in Ireland. The Society of United Irishmen, which he helped found, developed from a reform club into an insurrectionary movement, fuelled by popular grievances and martial-law repression. Tone's death from a reportedly self-inflicted wound after being sentenced to hang cemented his status as a martyr for Irish independence, though his legacy remains contested among republican factions.

Did You Know?

• Tone pronounced his first name as 'Tibbald' rather than the modern 'Thee-uh-bawld'.
• His mother, Margaret Lamport, was a Catholic who converted to her husband's church only when Tone was eight years old.
• As a student, Tone eloped with Martha (Matilda) Witherington when he was 22 and she was about 16.
• In 1798, Tone applauded Napoleon's deposition and imprisonment of Pope Pius VI.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Theobald Wolfe Tone (June 20, 1763 – November 19, 1798), commonly known as Wolfe Tone, was a leading figure in the United Irishmen Irish independence movement and is regarded as the father of Irish republicans." — Wolfe Tone "The Harpers again. Strum Strum and be hang'd!" — Wolfe Tone "[I]t is our principle that if a nation wills a bad government it ought to have that government. We have no power, and we have no right, to force men to be free." — Wolfe Tone "I for one will never be accessory to subjecting my country to the control of France merely to get rid of England." — Wolfe Tone